Los Angeles:
The 2020 edition of MTV Movie & TV Awards saw Hollywood stars Chadwick Boseman, Gal Gadot, Kevin Bacon and Kevin Hart, among others recognised as the ceremony honoured the ‘greatest of all time’ icons as opposed to best films and shows this year which was marred by the coronavirus pandemic. The 90-minute special celebrated “GOATs” across several categories, including Scream Queen, Legendary Lip Lock, Dance Your A** Off, Heartbreaking Break-Up, Comedy Giant, Zero to Hero, She-Ro, and Dynamic Duo.
The show was hosted by Vanessa Hudgens and featured a lineup of surprising guest stars, including Neve Campbell, Sofia Carson, Lily Collins and Derek Hough, among many others. The special paid tributes to some of pop culture’s greatest and most memorable moments in movies and TV from the 1980s until now.
“Black Panther” star Boseman, who died in August after a four year-long private battle with colon cancer, was named the Hero for the Ages for his contribution to cinema and the world off-screen. The ceremony played the actor’s inspiring address from the 2018 MTV Movie & TV Awards in which he accepted the Best Hero award.
“Receiving an award for playing a superhero is amazing, but it’s even greater to acknowledge the heroes that we have in real life. So, I just wanna acknowledge somebody that’s here today, James Shaw Jr. “If you don’t know James Shaw Jr, he fought off a gunman in Antioch, Tennessee, at a Waffle House, saved lives,” the actor had said as he called Shaw Jr up the stage.
Handing over the trophy to him, Boseman had said, “This is going to live at your house. God bless you.” Boseman’s “Avengers: Endgame” Robert Downey Jr and Don Cheadle presented the award posthumously to the late actor. “Mr Boseman truly embodied what it meant to be a superhero. His impact as a ground-breaking leading man, as an icon on screen, it won’t be quantified as a box office records he broke but by the legions of fans that will celebrate him for many years to come. He was the most heroic when just being Chad,” Iron Man star Downey Jr said.
Cheadle said Boseman will forever known as the Black Panther but he also painted incredibly powerful portrayals of iconic and influential real men — Thurgood Marshall, Jackie Robinson and James Brown –who changed the world. “He had an incredible power to unite people in their love for his work and their respect for him as a person. The way he lived his life united people behind a higher purpose and that will be his legacy,” Cheadle, who played War Machine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, said.
Gadot, who won the She-Ro award, said playing the Amazonian warrior Diana Prince/Wonder Woman has been the “greatest joy of my life”. “She means so much to me and I know how much she is loved by all her fans. To be part of her legacy is truly, truly, truly special,” the actor, who is looking forward to the release of “Wonder Woman 1984” , said. Bacon won the Golden Goat Award in Dance Your A** Off category for playing the rule breaker Ren in 1984’s cult dance film “Footloose” .
“I am truly honored. I just want to say thank you to Herb Ross and Dan Melnick and Craig Zadan and Dean Pitchford for giving me the opportunity to be in that life-changing movie. I also want to thank Lynne Taylor-Corbett, who taught me all those GOAT worthy moves all those years ago,” he added. On winning the award for the Comic Giant, Hart said he is more than grateful to his fans.
“Thank you for loving me, supporting me, throughout these years. You got 20 years of stand-up comedy and one thing that has been consistent all these years is you guys,” he said. Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler were named the Dynamic Duo for starring in hit rom-coms like “The Wedding Singer”, “50 First Dates” and “Blended”.
Barrymore said she “flattered” to share this amazing honour with her frequent collaborator. “It was so much fun to make a movie with you in every last of the three decades,” she told Sandler, to which replied “hope we get to make a new movie together (soon).” Sarah Michelle Gellar and Selma Blair, who received the golden popcorn trophy in the Legendary Lip Lock segment for teen romantic drama “Cruel Intentions”, tried recreating the scene while adhering to pandemic guidelines.
Gellar and Blair kissed with a glass shield in between, with the former saying, “Stay safe everybody and 2020, end soon.” William Zabka was named the GOAT: Zero to Hero for playing Johnny Lawrence in “The Karate Kid” film series and its follow-up web series “Cobra Kai”. Zabka, who along with Ralph Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso, reprised their roles in the show after 30 years of the films’ events re-examining the narrative from Johnny’s point of view and his decision to reopen the Cobra Kai karate dojo leading to the rekindling of his old rivalry with Daniel.
“I’d like to thank Robert Mark Kamen for writing ‘The Karate Kid’, writing this character, Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg, the creators of ‘Cobra Kai’ for picking up the torch three decades later and giving Johnny a new life, depth, humour and a shot at redemption. “To Ralph Macchio, to the legacy we shared and continue to share. There’s no Johnny Lawrence without your Daniel LaRusso. Thank you to the cast and crew of Kobra Kai, I can’t wait to get back to work. Thanks to all the fans,” Zabka said. Veteran actor Jamie Lee Curtis was named the Scream Queen for her act in the Fox horror comedy series “Scream Queens” and the GOAT for the Heartbreaking Break-Up were Jason Segel and Kristen Bell for the rom-com “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”.
